2013 Game-by-Game: Week 17

In Week 17 of the 2013 season the Broncos travel to Oakland to play the Raiders at O.co Coliseum.

WHEN: Sunday, Dec. 29, 1:25 p.m. PST.

WHERE: O.co Coliseum; Oakland.

TV: CBS.

SERIES RECORD: Raiders lead, 59-44-2 (Tied 1-1 in the postseason).

JOHN FOX'S RECORD: 4-2.

PEYTON MANNING'S RECORD: 5-2.

SERIES STREAK: Denver has won two straight, four of the last five and eight of the last 10 in Oakland.

LAST TIME: Broncos 26, Raiders 13; Dec. 6, 2012. The Broncos drove 68 yards to a Peyton Manning-to-Joel Dreessen touchdown pass on their first possession and never trailed after that, cruising to their eighth consecutive win. The Broncos piled up massive advantages in first downs (30-14) and time of possession (37:19 to 22:41), but a potential blowout was scuttled by drives that bogged down near the end zone. The Broncos settled for field goals on four of six possessions that crossed the Oakland 25-yard-line, and one of the two touchdowns they mustered came after being set up at the Oakland 2-yard-line via a strip-sack-fumble by linebacker Von Miller. With a comfortable lead through much of the game, Denver opted for a balanced attack; the Broncos called as many runs as pass plays: 39 apiece.

NOTING THE GAME:

The Broncos have played a division rival to close every regular season since 2008. But this is the first time since a 52-21 loss at San Diego in 2008 that they will finish the year on the road. The Broncos are 1-5 since 1996 when playing its Week 17 game away from Denver, but won the last time they closed the regular season at Oakland, defeating the Raiders 31-28 on Dec. 24, 1995 to conclude an 8-8 season.

Denver had lost four consecutive regular-season finales from 2008-11 before last year's 38-3 evisceration of Kansas City. The Broncos are 1-4 in their last five regular-season-concluding games, 4-6 in their last 10, 7-8 in their last 15 and 9-11 in their last 20.

Decisive margins are typical of this series in Oakland in recent years; just one game played there between the Broncos and Raiders since 2000 (2006, a 17-13 Broncos win) has been decided by less than two scores. The average margin between the two clubs in games at Oakland since 2000 is 15.0 points.

The Broncos are 13-5 in Oakland since the Raiders moved back to the Bay Area from Los Angeles 18 years ago.

John Fox has never lost at Oakland as a head coach; he's 3-0 thanks to wins in 2008 (with Carolina), 2011 and 2012.

Since Rich Gannon started nine consecutive games for Oakland against the Broncos, no Oakland quarterback has started more than four consecutive games in the series -- and that came eight years ago, when Kerry Collins started the four games in 2004-05. Since 2006, six different quarterbacks have started for Oakland against Denver. Of course, in that same span, the Broncos have started five quarterbacks against the Raiders: Jake Plummer, Jay Cutler, Kyle Orton, Tim Tebow and Manning.